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C.S. Reynolds (JILA, University of Colorado), P.R. Maloney (CASA, University of Colorado)
We have obtained a moderately long ASCA observation of the Ultra-luminous infra-red galaxy Mrk 231, the most luminous object in the local (z<0.1) universe. The most plausible explanation for the resulting hard X-ray spectrum is that we are seeing a deeply buried active nucleus through X-ray reflection and scattering. We estimate the intrinsic X-ray luminosity of the AGN and find that it is approximately 2% of the bolometric luminosity. Thus, it seems likely that a deeply buried quasar powers a significant fraction, if not all, of the observed bolometric luminosity.